People dancing on a stage with a red curtain

College of Arts and Sciences

Theatre Curriculum

Discover the Theatre Curriculum

The mission of the Department of Theatre is to embrace theatre as a means to inspire humanity and engage a diverse society. Collaborative artistic exploration cultivates a commitment to changemaking. Theatre at USD empowers and inspires critical thinking, creative engagement, effective communication and generous collaboration — offering students endless career opportunities.

What Theatre Students Learn:

  • Multidisciplinary applications of theatre within a global context
  • Creative and critical thinking skills
  • Empathetic engagement

Major

The theatre major focuses on classical and contemporary theatrical storytelling practices in the context of cultural diversity. Students acquire and develop the conceptual, creative and technical skills necessary for playmaking. Auditions are not required to become a theatre major.

Minor

The theatre minor provides foundational offerings in acting, design, script analysis and technical theatre as well as a range of elective courses and production experiences.

Explore Theatre Courses

Read descriptions of our current theatre classes on our Courses page. Not all courses offered below will be available every semester. Make sure to check course offerings on the registration portal for each upcoming semester.

Program Requirements

Each student declares their major(s) and minor(s) under a single catalog of record that is identified on the student's degree audit (available on Degree Works).

The program requirements below are based on the current course catalog and may not be applicable if a student is declared in an earlier catalog.

Find all previous course catalogs under on our Archived Catalogs of Record page.

44-46*

Major

22-24 units

Minor

Major unit estimates include preparation for the major course units as well as major requirements.